(Photo by Bryan Patrick, Sacramento Bee)

This is a must-read story for those who pay attention to nursing home care. The Sacramento Bee’s Marjie Lundstrom describes how nursing homes have altered patient medical records to hide serious conditions and care that was not given. The Bee identified nearly 150 cases of alleged chart falsifications. This is powerful stuff:

“Phantom nurses. Suspicious entries in medical charts. Phony paperwork, hurriedly produced after an injury or death.

“It is the untold story of nursing home care: falsification of patient records.

“While regulators have dogged facilities for years over fraudulent Medicare documentation, the issue of bogus records is more than a money matter. In California and elsewhere, nursing homes have been caught altering entries and outright lying on residents’ medical charts – sometimes with disastrous human consequences, according to a Bee investigation.

“Medications and treatments are documented as being given when they are not. Inaccurate entries have masked serious conditions in some patients, who ultimately died after not receiving proper care, The Bee found.”